The subject matter of the present application relates to robotic manipulator equipment and methods of operating the same. In one example, robotic manipulator equipment may be used for collection of a specimen from a culture medium such as an agar plate.
For collecting a specimen using a robotic system, e.g., for collecting a specimen of a microbial or bacterial culture from a viscous culture medium such as, for example, an agar plate, it is necessary that the robotic system accurately positions itself for collection of the specimen. Position of the culture in a horizontal plane (e.g., the positions in x and y horizontal directions in a Cartesian coordinate space) can be determined through calculations based on an imaging system. However, such imaging system cannot determine the vertical position of the culture with enough accuracy. The vertical position can be difficult to determine with an imaging system because the specimen and the medium may each vary greatly in characteristics such as, but not limited to, color, transparency, reflectance and moisture content.
Several methods have been proposed and investigated but no suitable solution has been found so far. Determining the vertical position of the specimen is essential because moving the robotic system too deep relative to the surface of the medium might cause the system to collect too much material of the culture medium, or collect too little of the specimen, e.g., collect too few bacteria. In either case, these problems can lead to erratic measurements and unreliable test results.
In view of these problems, further improvements in robotic collection systems and methods therefor are needed.